Awards for XC teams Senior Ben Klemmeck was the winner of the Bryce Court Inspirational Award at the Liberty Bell High School cross-country teams’ recent post-season banquet. Klemmeck finished fourth at the state 1B/2B championship meet in November. The Mountain Lion boys finished sixth at the meet; the girls’ team finished fifth. Eli Nielsen and...

The podiums at the U. S. National Distance Championships last week at Sun Valley, Idaho, were dominated by Nordic skiers familiar to the Methow Valley. On the women’s side, Caitlin Gregg won the 30-kilometer race with a commanding lead. Sadie Bjornsen, fresh off five months of racing on the World Cup circuit in Europe, was...

Winthrop’s Sadie and Erik Bjornsen — siblings, 2014 winter Olympians and now, teammates on the U.S. Cross-Country Ski Team — are in Lillehammer, Norway, for the second in a series of World Cup events that began in Kuusamo, Finland, on Nov. 29-30, and will conclude at Oslo, Norway, in March. The Bjornsens wasted no time making their marks in...

By Mike Maltais
Sadie and Erik Bjornsen of Mazama and former Winthop resident Brian Gregg squeezed the final drops from their first Olympic experiences during the closing ceremonies of the XXII Winter Games in Sochi, Russia, on Sunday.
Along the way all three found opportunities to …

By Mike Maltais Skiing “by far the best race of my life,” Olympics-bound Erik Bjornsen of Winthrop blitzed to an 18th-place finish in the men’s 15-kilometer classic at the World Cup competition in Toblach, Italy, last week. In the last World Cup event before the XXII Olympic Winter Games begin in Sochi, Russia, on Friday...

By Mike Maltais
Five lighted Olympic rings suspended over the entry leading to Jim and Jan Gregg’s property north of Winthrop bear witness to a crowning achievement for some dedicated parents, the Methow Valley Nordic Team and a supporting cast of …

By Mike MaltaisThe local community of cross country skiers is all abuzz about the latest news from Sochi central: World Cup superstar Sadie Bjornsen has been selected as a member of the U.S. Olympic Cross Country Ski Team that will compete in the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, next month.
“I also am...